Danbury & Bicknacre U13 7 : 1 Thaxted Rangers Yellows U13

Although the Yellows were comfortably beaten today, the smiles on the faces of their travelling fans showed that there's a lot more to youth football than winning.

The difference between this week's game and last week's was simple: this week we put in a shift.

We played as a team, we chased and harried more (thought we could still raise the commitment in this part of our game) and, most important of all, we passed more quickly and moved into space more thoughtfully.

And whilst one or two players still preferred to dribble when nothing but an inpenetrable wall of pink defenders faced them, on

the whole it was a different Yellows who turned out today.

And it was always going to be an uphill struggle against an exceptionally strong Danbury team.

Their bustling midfield captain (14) and super-speedy winger (18) dominated proceedings once again: the Iniesta and Ronaldo of division four!

But in the second half we put together some excellent front to back passing moves, creating periods of impressively sustained pressure – albeit without ever seriously testing their keeper.

In fact, even our consolation goal was put away by a Danbury player!